At the beginning of Lent, and as we think about the temptation of Jesus from Matthew 4, I wonder about the general purpose of this story. Why did Matthew record it for us? Further, I wonder if Jesus could truly have succumb to any opportunity, any temptation, to sin as it was presented by the gospel author?
For most, this story is uncomfortable to read and to think about.
For most, Lent is the 40 days of preparation and reflection for the church. This is the time where we consider the sacrifice of Jesus and adopt disciplines to foster a closeness with God and remind us that in Christ alone are we secured.
For most, we are not asked to transform stones to bread, we are not asked to throw ourselves off a high place, and we are not shown the kingdoms of the world and offered their glory, that is not our temptation—directly. And even if you say symbolically that we do face something similar, the story from Matthew, and its parallels in Mark and Luke, those are Jesus’ temptations… not ours.
Yet make no mistake. Temptation comes into our house… and perhaps it has come to your home already today. This morning. Maybe even in the last hour as you prepared for worship.
I want to spend some time today not thinking just about the temptation of Jesus directly. Not commenting on how Jesus was tempted in the desert by Satan or even just how the angels came and attended him once he resisted all three of His temptations.
Instead, I wonder if we can follow Jesus’ example when these moments of temptation come, because like I said, temptation comes for us. Often. And it will attempt to wreak havoc if we have no tools in our spiritual toolbox to address it.
So again, how do we address temptation?
Move 1- Define it
To begin addressing any temptation I think we need to first understand the term. We need to define ‘Temptation’ and define some its traits.
First off, when I think of any temptation that I face, whether I face it for years, or for just a moment. Whether it is a sin that stalks me in a short-term sense, or since I was a boy. Temptation is: isolating.
Temptation can, and it will, divide us from one another. It divides us from each other and it divides us from the church.
We see this in the text when Jesus was tempted to separate himself from the relationship and the unity that he has with God the Father. ‘Worship the me,’ the tempter says in verse 9. Basically, this temptation revolves us offering Jesus the choice to stop relying on the enterally grounded relationship that Jesus has with His Father in heaven.
The relationship that Jesus has always known and has trusted in. If Jesus choose to worship someone, something else, then God would no longer be the central figure or foundation of his life.
This temptation makes us ask the question: do we trust in ourselves alone and outside of God or do we rely on God. This is one way defining trait for temptation. It is isolating.
Temptations also, and for lack of a better word, they feel good. They satisfy a felt need in the moment. Command these stones to become bread. Yes, that would satisfy the immediate need of Jesus in the moment, but would that truly make the temptation moment, or lure, stop? No.
When we give into temptation at one moment, just so that it makes the lure go away, we can quickly find ourselves travelling down a slippery slope that leads us further and further away from God.
In social media parlance it’s called Doom Scrolling. And if you are not familiar with the term let me share it with you. Once you begin scrolling on social media, time seems to slip away from you and before you know it hours have passed by. It’s like a black hole. There is no brake to stop you. Nothing comes alongside of you to remind you that what you are doing in this moment does not benefit you in the kingdom of God.
Temptation works a lot like that. Think of any sin. Once you start down the pathway that it offers before you know it, you have travelled miles and miles away from the person, or church, who God called you to be and become.
Finally, temptation also is self-elevating. If Jesus was to throw himself off a high place and trust that God would send His angels to protect him, that elevate Jesus to place that He was not supposed to dwell at that moment.
Sure, as the Son of God, Jesus is going to be at that place Post Resurrection and Ascension. But not now. That is not where He was sent to be. This temptation was about moving ahead of God’s pace for his life and making himself the center of the story before it was God’s will.
Again… something that we are often tempted to do and live into. For indeed it does no feel good to elevate ourselves above the place that God has us in the moment, but that shows no reliance upon God. No trust on the will of God.
Instead, these three temptations: isolation, satisfaction, and self-elevation, challenge us to remain in the place where God’s will indicates we should dwell. I know… easier said that done.
Move 2- Confront it
So, we know what a temptation is, we need to next consider how do we work to resist it? We know we cannot fully weed it out of ourselves forever, but how do we move away from it for even Jesus gets to this point in our story today.
In our text, when Jesus arrives at this place, when Jesus finds that he is drug toward temptation, he uses what he has to address temptation.
This is no small point.
Certainly, you know that Jesus refuted and rebuffed the accuser in the desert by using God’s word. Repeatedly the Messiah cites passages from Deuteronomy, from the law of Moses, as his defense against the hungry, and power, and the prestige that the accuser presented him with while he was alone.
While the accuser also uses the psalms as part of the temptations of Jesus to attempt to draw him away from faithfulness, the Messiah sticks to what He has and to what He knows. He remains faithful to the revelation of God through the scriptures given to humanity for our growth and our support.
And while that is often how we hear and interact with this passage generally, it is a vitally important point for our thoughts today when we too face our daily temptations as a church and as individuals.
No matter what the temptation is, and no matter how you define it, you can only use what you have, or what you know perhaps, when temptation comes.
When you are confronted by fear, insecurity, anxiety and any of those negative emotions and struggles that we feel press down upon us as we work to serve the Lord as a church, you, like Jesus, must fall back on what you have come to believe and affirm as true.
If you do not have the deep knowledge of God, as found in the word, and supported through your lived experience, and nurtured in that experience with Christ each step along your life, and in the revelation of God, then when those fears and insecurities nip at your heart and tug on soul, you will struggle against any and every temptation.
A culture, or an individual, or a church, that does not hold onto their foundational truth will find themselves standing on that same foundation of sand that sinks and shifts as the culture of the day sinks and shifts before them. We must use what we have been given by God to address the fears, insecurities, and anxieties that arise in our lives when temptation presents itself to us.
Jesus uses what he has at hand to address the temptation to give in to fear and insecurity. He uses God and God’s word to Him as the means to preserve.
So we too must take stock of what God has revealed in our lives, what practices we have cultivated in us that can help us when temptation comes for us. Those are the things that we carry with us in our spiritual toolboxes.
Conclusion
For temptation is not only something that asks you to sin and draws you towards the practices. Temptation can also ask you to give in to your fears, insecurities, and anxieties. It can, and it often does, invite you to look at life and rather than choose faithfulness, temptation invites you to choose something else.
Today’s text reminds us that Jesus has been through it already for us. He went through it with us. And as he was just like us, he then provides a way for us to deal with it.
I wonder how you choose to address temptation? Do you just try and willpower it away, or could you consider using what God has put before you as a way to grow?
DM
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